From January – February 2010, more than 2,500 ideas were submitted and voted on by 100,000 people across the country. The top three rated ideas from each issue category, listed below, qualified for the final round.

Final round voting begins on March 1 and ends on March 12. The 10 most popular ideas will be presented to relevant members of the Obama Administration, and Change.org will subsequently mobilize its full community to support a series of grassroots campaigns to help turn each idea into reality.

A single payer, Medicare for All national health insurance program could save over $400 billion annually now wasted on overhead and bureaucracy, enough to cover all 47 million uninsured Americans. It would allow patients to go to the private doctor or hospital of their choice with no more HMO restrictions. Private insurance is a defective product that costs too much and covers too little – three-fourths of all bankruptcies for medical bills are among people who have insurance. We have 44 years of positive experience with Medicare taking care of our nation’s most vulnerable patients – seniors, the disabled, and people with kidney failure. Medicare for All would also allow the nation to reduce costs by buying medications in bulk, negotiating fees with doctors, and budgeting hospitals and other facilities. It would also allow Medicare benefits to be improved (to eliminate co-pays and deductibles, to add a comprehensive, permanent drug benefit, etc).